Microtransactions: An Improvement or Detriment to the Player’s Experience?

RipTen: I’ve never purchased a cosmetic item, though my guildmates certainly have. As far as I’m concerned, if you want to spend money on something that brings you some pleasure, I don’t see why it should be anybody else’s concern. In an MMO environment, as long as microtransactions don’t confer a noticeable advantage to those who choose to purchase them, they’re not harming the game or any player’s experience. Granted, being surrounded by 100 people all riding the latest purchasable mount might make you roll your eyes a little, but hey – in comparison, you’re suddenly a special little snowflake!

Detriment designed to make the gamer spend more money on useless stuff. XBL and Home are a perfect example to this trend. Useless...Utterly useless. Id much rather have the developer wait and work on a substantial DLC pack which I'll gladly pay money for.

That shouldn't be a question, its a detriment for sure. Normally I wouldn't care what ppl want to waste their money on, but this generation has seen the most corporate greed ever and its only getting worse because ppl just keep feeding them. If consumers would be more savvy and make these guys work for their money then we'd all benefit and get a bigger and better gaming experience. Sadly their is little will to push themselves when they can cash in so easily for worthless junk like different color clothing.

Detriment. It's coming to a point where a player can simply "buy" their way to the top. There will no longer be a level playing field for all, the real-world class divide will begin to creep into the virtual world (so much for escapism, eh?). Diablo III is being groomed as the first big foray into this business model and it's frankly disgusting. This industry is becoming far too focussed on money and it's starting to show. Horrible as it sounds, we need a crash to get the big investors out. They're the ones who don't care about fans or know anything about games, just money. They're the kind of guys who made the whole COD "yearly instalments with no improvements" model a reality. They're the evil masterminds behind the Skylanders thing too.